Equal Pay is Not Only A Woman’s Issue
Lilly Ledbetter’s Fair Pay Act
As President Obama signed the first Equal Pay law, he declared that equal pay was not only a woman’s issue. He declared that is was also a family issue, and these tough economic times were not a time for having to worry about pay disparities that were based upon gender.
The new law was inspired by a woman named Lilly Ledbetter, and it is called the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Ms. Ledbetter, who is now 70, did not learn that she was paid less than her male coworkers until the end of her 19 year career at GoodYear Tires. The previous law said that a complaint had to filed within 180 days of having a company decide to pay a woman less than her male coworkers. This is obviously unfair because most of us do not know how much other people earn because of company policies!
Ms. Ledbetter will not actually benefit from the new law, but she seemed very pleased that her fight would help the next generation of American women. The bill actually amends the 1974 Civil Rights Act, and it also applied to discrimination on the basis of race, age, national origon, or disability.
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